32 JANUARY. 



the other vermin ; and thousands of polecats, wea- 

 sels, stoats, rats, otters, badgers, and similar little 

 nightly depredators, are traced to their hiding- 

 places in old buildings, banks, and hollow trees, 

 and marked for certain destruction. The poacher, 

 particularly on moonlight nights, makes havoc with 

 game. Partridges, nestled down in a heap on the 

 stubble, are conspicuous objects ; and hares, driven 

 for food to gardens and turnip-fields, are destroyed 

 by hundreds. Wood-pigeons are killed in great 

 numbers on cabbage and turnip-fields by day ; in 

 the neighbourhood of large woods, where they 

 abound, the farmers' boys set steel-traps for them 

 in the snow, laying a cabbage-leaf on each trap, to 

 which they fly eagerly, and are abundantly cap- 

 tured ; and by moonlight they are shot in the trees 

 where they roost. Larks frequent stubbles in vast 

 flocks, and are destroyed by gun or net. Immense 

 numbers of these delightful songsters are sent, 

 during the winter months, from the neighbourhood 

 of Dunstable to London, and may be seen by 

 basketsfull at the poulterers'. When they have 

 congregated in flocks on the approach of winter, 

 they arrive in that neighbourhood lean and feeble ; 

 but they soon become strong and in good condition, 

 being supposed to pick up fine particles of chalk 

 with their food. They are in season from Michael- 

 mas to February ; and are not only served up at the 

 inns in that town, by a secret process of cookery, 

 in such a manner as to be regarded by travellers as 

 a peculiar luxury, but are thence sent, by a particu- 



